From a poverty-stricken childhood in Harlem and Jamaica, Harry Belafonte rose to become one of the world’s most popular singers, a film star, and a lifelong passionate social activist in the civil rights movement and numerous other humanitarian causes. Among his friends along the way were Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, John F. Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, and Danny Glover.

“My Song” is the inspiring autobiography of this unique artist and activist—the first singer in history to sell over 1 million records (Calypso), a winner of Broadway’s Tony Award, the first black producer in television (for which he won an Emmy, the first African-American to do so), and Oscar nominations for Carmen Jones. After being appointed by President John Kennedy cultural advisor to the Peace Corps, Belafonte served five years. He was also prominent in working for the release of his friend Nelson Mandela, and ending the apartheid government in South Africa. He was one of Martin Luther King’s closest confidants and strongest supporters. In 1987 he accepted the appointment as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He has been honored by many diverse groups including the NAACP, the ACLU, the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. He received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts, and in 1994 the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton. Now 84, he remains an outspoken progressive critic of U.S. foreign policy.